D’Antoni is a very smart guy. He will adapt his offense to fit the personnel here; Phoenix remained an elite offensive team despite some pretty major roster shakeups, including the loss of Joe Johnson to free agency; the absence of Amar’e Stoudemire for essentially the entire 2005-06 season; and the presence of a paint-clogging Shaquille O’Neal in the last part of the 2007-08 season, when the Suns ranked no. 2 overall in points per possession and scored just as efficiently with O’Neal on the court as off.

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Defense. Spare me the nonsense that D’Antoni doesn’t coach defense, or that his Phoenix teams were terrible defensively. They ranked right around the league average in points allowed per possession during most of his tenure there. Our collective addiction to points per game and (declining) ignorance about pace made it appear the Suns were hemorrhaging points like the Warriors. They weren’t.

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Please also spare me the dreck about how D’Antoni’s system “failed” in the playoffs or “can’t win” titles. Two conference finals berths in an ultracompetitive West is not a failure. The Suns suffered a disproportionate amount of bad luck in the postseason. Joe Johnson’s orbital fracture cost him the first two games of the 2005 conference finals. Stoudemire was out for the entirety of the 2006 postseason, and several other key guys, including Raja Bell and Kurt Thomas, were in street clothes for part of that run. The suspensions of Boris Diaw and Stoudemire for Game 5 of the conference semifinals against San Antonio in 2007 shifted the entire series.

I also don't see anyone saying he's a savior either. If anything most of us Lakers fans are being cautious of getting happy and most of us still wanted Phil. Laker haters have beer goggles when it comes to LA. Only see what they want.

I'm not anointing D'Antoni anything until he proves himself. Anything is better than Mike Brown. I do hope that he doesn't even think about this 7 seconds or less garbage and that he commits to some sort of defense. If he does that, the team should be fine. If they run like crazy and don't play any D, they will probably get smoked.

D’Antoni is a very smart guy. He will adapt his offense to fit the personnel here; Phoenix remained an elite offensive team despite some pretty major roster shakeups, including the loss of Joe Johnson to free agency; the absence of Amar’e Stoudemire for essentially the entire 2005-06 season; and the presence of a paint-clogging Shaquille O’Neal in the last part of the 2007-08 season, when the Suns ranked no. 2 overall in points per possession and scored just as efficiently with O’Neal on the court as off.

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Defense. Spare me the nonsense that D’Antoni doesn’t coach defense, or that his Phoenix teams were terrible defensively. They ranked right around the league average in points allowed per possession during most of his tenure there. Our collective addiction to points per game and (declining) ignorance about pace made it appear the Suns were hemorrhaging points like the Warriors. They weren’t.

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Please also spare me the dreck about how D’Antoni’s system “failed” in the playoffs or “can’t win” titles. Two conference finals berths in an ultracompetitive West is not a failure. The Suns suffered a disproportionate amount of bad luck in the postseason. Joe Johnson’s orbital fracture cost him the first two games of the 2005 conference finals. Stoudemire was out for the entirety of the 2006 postseason, and several other key guys, including Raja Bell and Kurt Thomas, were in street clothes for part of that run. The suspensions of Boris Diaw and Stoudemire for Game 5 of the conference semifinals against San Antonio in 2007 shifted the entire series.

Yep. Pretty much accurate. The part about the Suns D is an especially good point. Fools look at points per game and think that equals defense. The Suns were defending significantly more possessions per game than your average team for obvious reasons.

Media outlook on MDA
>Knicks, joke coach, refuses to coach defense
>Lakers, yeah all that shit we clowned him for, we were wrong about it.

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Why do posters here constantly cherry-pick shit like this? There have always been detractors and supporters of D'Antoni and there's always been a wide gap between. Lots of people, media talking heads included, have been hating on the decision to go with D'Antoni, just as there were many who thought D'Antoni would fare better with the Knicks offense than he did.

Also D'Antoni seems to be a far better fit in LA than he was with that Knicks lineup, so they should look on this more favorably.

D'antoni has been embattled since leaving the suns. I'd love to know where those supporters were hiding, because they sure weren't standing behind him when he wasn't coaching Steve Nash.

He was widely and loudly labeled as an offensive genius who refuses to pay attention to defense. He was widely and loudly criticized for not hiring a top defensive assistant coach. Now all of a sudden, we're revisiting buried facts. Nobody wanted to hear about Phoenix having to defend so many more possessions than the average team years ago.

D'antoni has been embattled since leaving the suns. I'd love to know where those supporters were hiding, because they sure weren't standing behind him when he wasn't coaching Steve Nash.

He was widely and loudly labeled as an offensive genius who refuses to pay attention to defense. He was widely and loudly criticized for not hiring a top defensive assistant coach. Now all of a sudden, we're revisiting buried facts. Nobody wanted to hear about Phoenix having to defend so many more possessions than the average team years ago.

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Outside of Knick fans and the occasional delusional fan, who else really criticized him on this board?

D'antoni has been embattled since leaving the suns. I'd love to know where those supporters were hiding, because they sure weren't standing behind him when he wasn't coaching Steve Nash.

He was widely and loudly labeled as an offensive genius who refuses to pay attention to defense. He was widely and loudly criticized for not hiring a top defensive assistant coach. Now all of a sudden, we're revisiting buried facts. Nobody wanted to hear about Phoenix having to defend so many more possessions than the average team years ago.

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Outside of Knick fans and the occasional delusional fan, who else really criticized him on this board?

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I don't just mean this board. He never had a good reputation nationally either.

D'antoni has been embattled since leaving the suns. I'd love to know where those supporters were hiding, because they sure weren't standing behind him when he wasn't coaching Steve Nash.

He was widely and loudly labeled as an offensive genius who refuses to pay attention to defense. He was widely and loudly criticized for not hiring a top defensive assistant coach. Now all of a sudden, we're revisiting buried facts. Nobody wanted to hear about Phoenix having to defend so many more possessions than the average team years ago.

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A coach who is considered an "offensive genius" regardless of his defense will have many supporters. He's certainly had plenty of criticism, but his supporters were there, whether or not they were writing about it. I mean what would they have to laud him for since his Phoenix days? Things obviously didn't go well in NY. People are always going to be more vocal when there's reason to be.

He's once again on a good team and a team for which he should be a good fit, so his supporters are speaking up again. No surprise. I don't remember that many people being against the hiring of D'Antoni in NY from the outset. It's no surprise some people would throw the coach under the bus after things didn't go well, though tons of people pointed the finger at the FO for bringing in players that made little sense. Then of course you had lots of people blaming Melo and Stoudemire. Blame gets thrown around when shit goes south. And it's NY so everything's magnified.

I know on IGN at least D'Antoni received less blame for the Knicks than Dolan, Melo and Stoudemire received.

D'Antoni doesn't suck and I'm actually surprised the Clippers didn't nab him this past offseason. Granted, he's not Phil Jackson...but still a very good head coach and is definitely an upgrade > Mike Brown.

If the Lakers were to lose to the Thunder (their only real playoff challenge on paper, in my opinion), I'd blame it more on youth prevailing over aging vets, more than anything else.

^ i still say the only way this lakers team loses to OKC is if OKC gets on a series-long shooting streak, or if dwight has foul trouble all series. and even if those things happen it's still anyone's series, but if those things DONT happen, then LAL wins. assuming both teams are healthy.

it might actually hinge entirely on westbrook's shooting. he might be able to get by nash but he wont have an easy time scoring at the rim. so if westbrick shows up (likely will for at least a couple games) i dont see how OKC wins that series. how does that team outscore d'antoni's nash/kobe/dwight/pau offense, with 100% dwight protecting the paint? i guess we still have to see how that particular offense shapes up though.

that said okc obviously has the talent to beat anybody, but im looking it at 'on paper.'

^ i still say the only way this lakers team loses to OKC is if OKC gets on a series-long shooting streak, or if dwight has foul trouble all series. and even if those things happen it's still anyone's series, but if those things DONT happen, then LAL wins. assuming both teams are healthy.

it might actually hinge entirely on westbrook's shooting. he might be able to get by nash but he wont have an easy time scoring at the rim. so if westbrick shows up (likely will for at least a couple games) i dont see how OKC wins that series. how does that team outscore d'antoni's nash/kobe/dwight/pau offense, with 100% dwight protecting the paint? i guess we still have to see how that particular offense shapes up though.

that said okc obviously has the talent to beat anybody, but im looking it at 'on paper.'

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Not to sound disrespectful or anything, but it seems like ever since Nash joined the Lakers, 75% of your posts are about them.

yeah i post too much about the lakers. i do find them very fascinating.

i actually like the lakers players a lot. thats why it gets weird for me, because i hate the lakers and their fans (most of em) but individually, i like their players. that said nash is the main reason i'm invested. also because they are a division rival and i'm friends with a lof of laker fans (they're all over AZ), so i'm sort of just sucked into thet spectacle of it all.

to be fair tho, this is far and away the most interesting thing to discuss in the NBA right now. it's taking up more than 75% of basketball discussion right now. to me, they are a much more interesting team to ponder than the miami super team when they were formed. and i'd love to talk about my suns all the time but who cares about them

once the season settles down and the lakers become less turbulent there wont be as much to discuss.

^ i still say the only way this lakers team loses to OKC is if OKC gets on a series-long shooting streak, or if dwight has foul trouble all series. and even if those things happen it's still anyone's series, but if those things DONT happen, then LAL wins. assuming both teams are healthy.

it might actually hinge entirely on westbrook's shooting. he might be able to get by nash but he wont have an easy time scoring at the rim. so if westbrick shows up (likely will for at least a couple games) i dont see how OKC wins that series. how does that team outscore d'antoni's nash/kobe/dwight/pau offense, with 100% dwight protecting the paint? i guess we still have to see how that particular offense shapes up though.

that said okc obviously has the talent to beat anybody, but im looking it at 'on paper.'

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Not to sound disrespectful or anything, but it seems like ever since Nash joined the Lakers, 75% of your posts are about them.

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They are all anybody ever talks about on these boards..so many Lakers threads because of all the drama going on. He's just being on topic...